This invention concerns application of liquid coating onto the edges of a workpiece, such as a primer onto the edges of a windshield prior to adhesively molding a seal to the windshields or to and other automobile glazing panels.
A commonly practiced technique is to saturate felt wiping strips with the primer coating and pass the edge of the glazing panel against the felt strip to coat the side surfaces of the panel adjacent its perimeter. This is often done with a robot manipulator handling the glazing panel.
Such wiping technique is effective compared with spray coating, as overspray from spray coating wastes material and presents maintenance problems, and uniform application is more difficult.
Recent trends have resulted in a requirement to coat the perimeter edge as well as one or both sides of the glass along a strip adjacent the perimeter edge.
Heretofore, such perimeter edge coating when done simultaneously with side surfaces has only been possible with spray applications of the coatings, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,645, issued on Nov. 1, 1994 for an "Apparatus and Method for Coating a Material Onto a Planar Substrate". As noted, spray coating has disadvantages.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and process for simultaneously wipe coating a perimeter edge and one or both adjacent side surfaces of a panel.